659 in history

Born in 659

Jan 4

Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin
the fourth Shiite Imam, after his father Husayn, his uncle Hasan, and his grandfather Ali, the Prophet’s son-in-law.
He survived the Battle of Karbala and was taken along with the enslaved women to the caliph in Damascus. Eventually, however, he was allowed to return to Medina where he led a secluded life with only a few intimate companions. Imam Sajjad's life and statements were entirely devoted to asceticism and religious teachings mostly in the form of invocations and supplications. His famous supplications are well known as Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya

Died in 659

Mar 17

Gertrude of Nivelles
a seventh-century abbess who, with her mother Itta, founded the Benedictine monastery of Nivelles in present-day Belgium.
Although she was never formally canonized, in 1677 Pope Clement XII declared her universal feast day to be March 17. She is the patron saint of travelers, gardeners, and cats, and against rats and mental illness